The HCQI project began in 2001 building on two pre-existing international collaborations organised by the Commonwealth Fund and the Nordic Minister Council Working Group on Quality Measurement.

 

In 2006, the International Journal for Quality in Health Care devoted an edition of the journal to the OECD Health Care Quality Indicators project presenting the history, conceptual framework and initial indicator selection.

 

Collaborations with the European Commission's Safety and Quality of Care Working Group and the related European Union Network for Patient Safety (EUNetPaS) project have fostered the ongoing work and the use of the HCQI indicators among the countries of the European Union for common and comparable indicators for quality measurement.